3/29/13 2:58 PM EDT

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3/28/13 12:49 PM EDT

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint Thursday with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Louie Gohmert for his late-night verbal altercation with the U.S. Park Police.

POLITICO reported that the Texas Republican was issued a parking ticket near the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month. Gohmert then argued with officers that his congressional placard allows him to park in the space marked for only National Park Service vehicles, and said he’s on the House Natural Resources Committee that oversees the agency.

Gohmert took the ticket off his windshield and placed it on a police car along with his business card with a written message: “Oversight of Park Service is my job! Natural Resources Thus the Congressional Plate in window.”

Gohmert’s office said the congressman was taking his stepsister and her husband to the memorial, and the officer later accepted the ticket back and apologized. The police report obtained by POLITICO, which includes statements from three officers, makes no mention of apologizing to Gohmert or what happened to the parking violation.

“By abusing his position as a member of Congress to yell at police officers and try and get out of a parking ticket, Rep. Gohmert engaged in conduct that reflects discreditably upon the House,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan in a statement. “No wonder the public prefers cockroaches to members of Congress.”

3/25/13 5:04 PM EDT

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi can tack on a new title: muse.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) appeared at a fundraiser with Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) last week, swaying and clapping as the congressman played guitar and sang the hit song “American Pie,” according to a report released Monday from Capital New York. At one point, Crowley changed up the lyrics in a nod to Pelosi.

“The three people I admired most / Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi the most / they caught the last train for the coast,” Crowley crooned.

3/25/13 4:09 PM EDT

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) pushed back against television ads from a group backed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg encouraging lawmakers to support gun control bills.

“I don’t take gun advice from the mayor of New York City,” Pryor said in a statement. “I listen to Arkansans.”

The $12 million ad campaign, which depicts gun owners supporting background checks, is being run in conservative states represented by Democrats and states represented by Republicans who the group said, “they can most influence the upcoming Senate vote.”

Pryor, who is up for reelection next year, is one of a handful of Democrats believed to be unlikely to support gun-control legislation.

3/21/13 12:01 PM EDT

House Speaker John Boehner said he respects people who support same-sex marriage, but still believes marriage is between a man and woman.

"This is a very divisive issue," Boehner told reporters Thursday in the Capitol. "People on both sides of this question have serious positions and I respect everyone's opinion. I just gave my opinion. My opinion is born out of my childhood, my faith, my beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman. I respect other peoples views."

Republicans have been wrestling over whether to support gay marriage for years, but the debate was started anew last week, when Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said he supported same-sex marriage. Portman, who has served with Boehner for decades in Washington, has a gay son.

3/20/13 2:29 PM EDT

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) doesn’t want some White House staffers to get paid if an administrative budget isn’t turned over to Congress in time.

He introduced a bill Wednesday that would withhold pay for the director of Office of Management and Budget and any other Senate-confirmed OMB employees for every day the White House budget is late.

Republicans frequently criticize President Barack Obama and his staff for not meeting budget deadlines. And Obama has already missed this year's deadline of Feb. 4.

“For 4 of the last 5 years, the president has missed the legal deadline for submitting his budget, and leading from behind has become the standard mode of operation,” Cornyn said in a statement. “The American people have been waiting 44 days to hear the president’s priorities.”

3/20/13 2:19 PM EDT

Ruth David

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t talking about Democratic donor Salomon Melgen one day after POLITICO reported that Melgen flew Reid on his jet last summer.

"I made a statement in the paper, I'm not going to say any more,” Reid told POLITICO, when asked Wednesday about his relationship with Melgen and if Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) asked Reid to help the donor in any way.

Melgen flew Reid on his company’s private plane last June to Boston and back for a Majority PAC event, Reid’s office confirmed Tuesday.

Majority PAC, a super PAC closely linked to Reid that benefits Senate Democratic candidates, reported reimbursing Melgen’s ophthalmology company $4,160 for “travel” last summer, a payment Reid’s office said was for the Boston trip.

“Sen. Reid took a flight that was in full compliance with FEC rules and fully paid for,” said his spokesman Adam Jentleson.

Flight records show that Melgen’s plane flew from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Boston at 7:15 a.m. on June 18, 2012, en route to Boston. It stayed on the ground less than three hours, before returning to Reagan, which requires special security clearance for private planes.

Melgen is the wealthy South Florida eye doctor and investor under federal investigations for his business dealings. And the Senate Ethics Committee is looking at Menendez’s flights on Melgen’s plane. Melgen also donated $700,000 last year to Majority PAC, which spent $582,500 supporting Menendez’s 2012 reelection campaign — which Menendez won by 18 percentage points.

3/20/13 11:41 AM EDT

AP Photo

Top House Republicans were invited to Israel with President Barack Obama, but did not attend because of the congressional schedule, sources on Capitol Hill and at the White House say.

Most notably, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) declined an invitation to attend a Jerusalem state dinner in honor of Obama because Congress is voting on government funding and the 2014 budget this week, several sources said. The White House invited Cantor to Obama’s speech in Jerusalem.

The Israeli government, of course, is running the state dinner that they are throwing in honor of Obama. But the White House suggested a slate of American dignitaries to invite, according to a source familiar with the trip.

Obama administration sources said a broad swath of members of Congress was invited to accompany Obama.

“We invited a group of bipartisan members, representing leadership, relevant committees and prominent Jewish members,” an administration source said. “Given the congressional schedule, most could not make it.”

Cantor's office said Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration did not invite them to Israel, but it was rather the Israeli government.

"As I told Politico this morning, the Majority Leader was not invited on the trip to Israel by the White House, but was invited to a state dinner by the government of Israel, which we regrettably had to decline due to the House schedule," said Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper. "We wish the president well on his visit."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, both flew on Air Force One with Obama from Andrews Air Force Base to Tel Aviv.

The 75-year-old Cochran, who has served in the Senate since 1978, is one of the most senior members of the body. He has amassed power on some of the more influential committees, including Agriculture and Appropriations.

But it's widely expected inside the Senate that he will call it quits. If he retires, he would become the seventh senator to forgo an attempt at reelection next year. Others who are on the watch list for possible retirements include Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

3/19/13 3:04 PM EDT

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Tuesday that he would not have been able to get a gun control bill to the Senate floor if it included the assault weapon ban.

Reid explained that the decision to move a comprehensive bill sans an assault weapon ban was made because otherwise there would not have been 60 votes. He said members will still be able to vote on the assault weapon ban through an amendment.

“Dianne has worked so hard on this,” Reid said, referring to the ban's sponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “She understands going back to the day she found the mayor dead in his office. I know that, but right now her amendment, using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes. That’s not 60. I have to get something on the floor so we can have votes on that issue and the other issues.”

Reid said he is going to try to hold votes on a gun control bill when the Senate returns in April from the Easter break.

3/19/13 11:57 AM EDT

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on Immigration, said on Tuesday he’s seen a marked change in the way Republicans are approaching the immigration debate -- and that he has a key ally in Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Speaking to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Gutierrez said he and Ryan would be talking about immigration reform in Chicago in April.

He said that Ryan “was not new” to the immigration debate but that “like many in the Republican Party, his voice was shut out.”

Gutierrez said that prior to the election, when Ryan was on the ticket as a vice presidential nominee, he ran into Ryan in the House gym where the two agreed to continue to work together on immigration reform.

“I said ‘So, if you’re vice president, do I still get to call you so we can talk about immigration?’ And he said, ‘It’s the first call I expect to get from you,’” Gutierrez recalled.

After Ryan returned to the House, he expressed his continued commitment to Gutierrez.

“After the election I see him in the same gym, and he says Luis, I want to do it because it’s the right thing to do,’” Gutierrez said.

Ryan is working with a number of GOP working groups on immigration. They are reviewing immigration issues ranging from agricultural to high-tech visas, to border security and dealing with illegal immigrants already in the country. These proposals will supplement the main House bipartisan talks on immigration. Gutierrez is reported to be a part of that group (which he will neither confirm or deny), and Ryan has also been in contact with the bipartisan group, according to sources.

Gutierrez also pointed to Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee'sIimmigration subcommittee, and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) as key Republican members working on immigration reform.

“From the day he was named subcommittee chairman, he started talking about immigration in a new way,” Gutierrez said of Gowdy. “He wanted to focus on the people and humanity and get away from the stereotypes and the labels like ‘illegals.’”